November 2016 - Sunday Sermon Series

Hello everyone!

Another post from my Sunday Sermon Series this time. Yesterday we discussed hope. Verses we read in this study: Hebrews 3:1, Peter 3:13-15, Psalm 71:1-16, Peter 1:1-9 and 13.

As Christians our hope is a product of our faith in God. Hope is not to be confused with wishful thinking. In our society today hope is used like this: "I hope you have a nice day." I have no idea what will happen to you today, but I wish that bad things will not happen to you, only good things. True hope for Christians is the assurance and conviction in God, and his promises to us. God created us, God loves us. Regardless of my (or our) situation in this fallen world, I have a promise from God that whatever I go through He will be there with me. I may not like the circumstances, and things might not get better for me in THIS world. But in eternity I know (have assurance and conviction) that I am promised life with God, an experience greater than I can even imagine.

Looking inward, or seeking answers or hope from the wisdom of man proves fruitless (as we see time and time again throughout history). Nothing in this world lasts forever. That path leads to despair.

Whatever happens to us we must keep our focus on God. Carry on trusting in Him, and seeking the path he has laid out before us.

This pencil sketch was done with a Pentel .7mm P207 mechanical pencil in a Pentalic Sketchbook on 70lbs. paper. I hope you are encouraged by this, and that you all have a great day. --Ryan

Love One Another

Hello everybody! Today I have some rough sketches to share with you. The following sketch is a rough. I intended to do much more detailed drawings of these kids, but I've been quite busy lately. I couldn't keep from sharing them though, as I feel we could all use some encouragement.

It seems our culture is getting more and more turbulent, darker by the day. The media drives us farther apart time and time again with one pointless, insane argument after another. But is that what you want to be, part of another crazy argument? Is that what you want for our nation? Can you be a part of making the world a better place?

Share the hope that you have. Hope that despite the condition of the world God still sits on His throne. He is still in command. And though nations may rise and fall, God still loves us. Share the hope of Christ Jesus. Choose this day to encourage people around you. Take a break from complaining, griping, and self. Help someone out. Look for a need, and be the solution. Love one another.

Love one another. As always I hope you've enjoyed my work, if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment. Thank you for stopping by, God bless, and have a great day!--Ryan

April 28th Walk This Way...

Howdy friends. Today I give you three more characters strutting their stuff. We have Mort Felinestien, Hank Tembo, and Mrs. Topeka. I trimmed the sections that you have already seen, so that it doesn't get monotonous. As I have stated in previous posts the first section contains the rough pencil animation I have used as the basis for all the other walk cycles. When I drop these characters into scenes in the final animation I'll stagger their walk cycles. In English that means they won't all walk in unison in the final. ; )

As you can see to the left here, Mrs. Topeka doesn't have much up and down in her walk cycle. I tried to match the suggestion of girth/weight (no offense Mrs. Topeka!) that I had in Mr. Topeka's walk a few weeks back. I have a feeling that as they approach you on the sidewalk you can feel these two characters before you see them. The concrete would tremble.

Speaking of trembling concrete, Hank Tembo (Swahili for elephant, according to Google) is sporting a stylish plaid Irish cap (which can be purchased in the gift shop on your way out). His toy/gift bag originally had the name Finnegan's on it, but it was too hard to read so I took that out.

And then of course there is Mort Felinestien looking oh so sharp in a grey suit which matches his bowler, the band of which matches his tie and socks! Mort is carrying a rolled up newspaper, which he plans to attack and shred once he gets back to the office.

One again that's the Marine Corps belting out "Up In The Morning". It seems very fitting with all the exercising going on around here. It's also one of my favorite cadences, and one I loved to run and ride to back in the day.

Next time I will try and drop a city sidewalk scene scrolling by in the background for next time. Something that loops, like the old Flintstone's backgrounds did. Something simple though. I want it to be interesting, but I don't want it to detract from the main purpose which is just showing off the walk cycles.

Walking Characters from ryanloghry on Vimeo.

As I have stated before my work flow is pretty basic. I draw the characters in my sketchbook. I scan the drawings and "cut them out" in PhotoShop so I can move the pieces. Then I pose them on each frame of the walk cycle (still in PhotoShop). Then I render it out as a Quicktime movie. I use After Effects and Premiere to composite everything together. As always I hope you have enjoyed my drawings and this animation. Thank you for stopping by, God bless, and have a great day.

Walkers April 18, 2016

Hello friends! I've been wanting to update for a couple of weeks but have battled a serious QuickTime issue that halted my work flow, and on the plus side had much less time to work as I've had a lot of paying work to do.

This time I have added a pig, a water buffalo, and a tiger. They appear 20 seconds in to the video, so you have to watch the whole thing to see the new material. In the coming months I'll be adding more and more characters. I've drawn some female characters who will start to show up soon, as well as children characters walking quickly to keep up with their parents.

Also I updated the soundtrack from that terrible recording of Miles Davis jazz to the U.S. Marines singing "Up In The Morning" which seemed very appropriate for all the marching characters.

Walkers April 18, 2016 from Ryan Loghry.

As always I hope you've enjoyed this animation, if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment. Thank you for stopping by, God bless, and have a great day!--Ryan

More Walk Cycles

Hello everyone! I've added two more animated characters to the mix this week. an alligator, and a buffalo. I also added some Miles Davis for them to walk to. Five points if you can name the song and album(that's what we called a collection of songs before cds came along, for all you kiddos out there).

More Walking Animals from ryanloghry on Vimeo.

Animation update

Howdy folks!

Today I have an update on the animation I posted last weekend. I've added another character and his walk cycle to the movie. This character is a rather dapper doggy. He walks a bit slower as he has a shorter stride, and he's a bit older.

I'll keep posting updates as I finish animating characters, and then once I have enough to "finish" a scene I used in my Christmas animation (click here to see the original in all it's glory: Joy to the World) I'll post a link to that. As I've stated before my goal here is to add characters, and vehicles, and just MORE stuff to help fill out the original scenes.

This walk cycle is the same length as the previous two I've posted, 8 frames. I create my 8 frame animation by breaking apart a colorized pencil drawing, and then posing the legs, arms, torso, head and sometimes tail how I want it in each frame. I use my original Preston Blair-esque walk cycle as a template(that's it in the left side of the frame of the animation below).

Then I set the frame rate (how long each frame lasts), and render it out. I do all of this work in PhotoShop. Once I have created a sufficient number of extras, I will begin comping, or compositing these new characters into the scenes I already created last year, using After Effects. This is a process of layering the animated and still objects in the scene to give it more depth. Right now all these characters are walking at the same speed, and are very uniform. In the scene I will vary their rate of walking so they are each a little different from one another. The whole animation is 20 seconds at this point. 10 seconds of the first three characters walking along, then the dog flips in, and walks with the others for 10 seconds.

As always I hope you've enjoyed my work, and that you will feel free to leave a comment, or ask a question. Thanks for stopping by, have a great day, and God bless.

Walk walk walk...

Good morning everyone! Today I'm am sharing some work in progress. All year long I will be adding to the Christmas animation I posted in December. I will be adding more animated characters walking, and interacting in every scene.

In this animation I am showing on the left side the walk cycle I drew (thank you Preston Blair for your amazing work). In the middle of the frame is the black and white pencil drawn character I created, and matched pose for pose to my template. And then finally the full color character walking on the right, which I will drop into one of my scenes. My goal is to make last years animation look fuller, more lived in. I try to produce a card and animation each year, but since I usually start in August or September that only leaves me about 3 months to produce everything needed, which for a one man show is not very long. Last year I hit on this idea of creating an animation, and then filling it in, and improving it all year long. Please click "Play" on the video below to watch the animation.

If you would like to view the animation on my Vimeo page then please go here.

I sure love to draw, and I love to make those drawings move. I again thank my wife Angela for getting me Adobe CS6 three years ago, it is an amazing tool that allows me to fulfill my dreams, and to work at a level higher than I've ever been able to achieve before.

A full list of the tools I used for this: Pentel .7mm mechanical pencil; a Pentalic hardbound sketchbook with 70 lbs. paper; an Epson 3200 scanner (thank you David Schrotzberger for giving me yours when my old one died unexpectedly); Adobe Photoshope for edge clean up and colorization of the pencil drawings, as well as creating the frame by frame animation; Adobe Premiere for comping each animation together.

As always I hope you have enjoyed watching this animation and learning how I work. Thank you for stopping by, and I'll keep posting updates as I finish more characters. Have a terrific day, and God bless! -- Ryan

Sunday Sermon Series January 22, 2016

Hello friends,

This sketch reflects pastor Mike's sermon on January 17th, 2016. Jesus said "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. John 8:12"

Over the years I have sketched many different versions of this concept. I think I revisit this concept (in my daily thought process, and in sketching), so often because I believe I am on a journey with God. Every day I walk on this journey. Sometimes I stumble, sometimes I fall clear down. Not because God has abandoned me, but because I have decided to make my own way, to take a step under my own power, by selfish decisions to some degree or another. And as I fumble around on the dark ground, Jesus is always there to help me back up. I repent my mistake, and I look back to Jesus for guidance. Being a Christian isn't about acting better, or being more holy than anyone else. It is about knowing my place in the world, and where to look to find out what the next step is.

As always, I hope you have enjoyed this image and this post. Thank you for stopping by. I hope you have a terrific day, and God bless! --Ryan